Friday 11 May 2012 06.42 EDT
First published on Friday 11 May 2012 06.42 EDT

If everything that goes around really does come around Manchester City supporters must wish it would get a move on. Waiting for City to win another league title is a bit like waiting for another sighting of Halley's comet except that in the case of the latter you know it will turn up eventually.

At least the patience of long-suffering Manchester City fans should be rewarded on Sunday. If City beat Queens Park Rangers at the Etihad they will be champions for only the third time in their history having denied Manchester United a fifth triumph in six seasons.

The middle-aged and elderly members of the crowd will have first-hand memories of the last time Manchester City won the title, 44 years ago. There may be some over-80s who can recall City finishing top of the old First Division in 1937 (and being relegated in 1938) but the team of largely local talent that saw off the challenge of Manchester United and Liverpool in 1968 will be the one most easily recalled.

Now, even the way football was in the late 60s belongs to another world. For City supporters rejoicing in the omnipotent form of Yaya Touré, from the Ivory Coast, the skill, pace and sheer industry of an Argentinian, Sergio Agüero, and the authority in defence of a Belgian, Vincent Kompany, it must be hard to imagine a team in which the only "foreigners" were players such as the Somerset-born Tony Book and Mike Summerbee, signed from Swindon.

To be sure there is, by current standards, a healthy English presence in Roberto Mancini's squad. For Joe Corrigan read Joe Hart, the best goalkeeper in the Premier League and maybe the best in Europe. Yet when the players assembled by Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison lined up for the 1967-68 season the large majority were born either in Manchester or the north-west region. And more than half were products of the club's youth system.

City in the late 60s were a phenomenon. Early in the decade they had been relegated and a fixture against Swindon in January 1965 was watched by a sparse crowd of 8,015, a record low attendance for a home game. That summer Mercer and Allison took over, signed Summerbee and Colin Bell, and quickly won promotion. Even then few suspected that not only would Manchester City be champions after another two seasons but that they would also play football of a style and quality rare in the English game of the period.

Mercer and Allison complemented each other well. In spite of his easy-going manner, Mercer was a tough manager. Previously he had been in charge at Aston Villa and after one particularly bad performance came into the dressing room and did not say a word. He just sent the tea urn flying. Allison was one of the most forward-thinking coaches of his generation but it needed Mercer to put the brake on his wilder ideas.

Allison said some silly things such as "no footballer of talent should play in the back four" (so much for Bobby Moore and Franz Beckenbauer), but he could also be profound. None of those operating in the hothouse of the Premier League would disagree with his assertion that football "has the power to destroy because it releases unnatural forces. It creates an unreal atmosphere of excitement and it deals in elation and despair, and it bestows these emotions at least once a week." Everybody, from Mancini to Blackburn's beleaguered Steve Kean, would say amen to that.

If Manchester City win the Premier League it will doubtless be seen as a new sky blue dawn. Certainly this was the feeling in 1968, even if Manchester United did eclipse the moment by bringing the European Cup to England for the first time. The sun began to set on Matt Busby's United side after that and he retired the following year but City, while they won a few cups, never quite reached the same heights.

United are again starting to look past their best, Sir Alex Ferguson is in his 70s and City's only problem financially involves keeping within the new spending limits decreed by Uefa. Once more the Champions League beckons and at least Mancini is unlikely to echo Allison's declaration 44 years ago that "European football is full of cowards and we will terrorise them with our power and attacking football".

Fenerbahce were so terrified that they forced a 0-0 draw at Maine Road and beat City 2-1 back in Istanbul. Mancini's Manchester City are less inclined to play it for laughs. Carlos Tevez wouldn't even do a warm-up.